


Wishing Bird

by KatelynnKittaly, NightysWolf



Series: Wish Upon a Wing and a Star [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Pre-Altissia (Final Fantasy XV), Wishing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 07:50:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20775083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatelynnKittaly/pseuds/KatelynnKittaly, https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightysWolf/pseuds/NightysWolf
Summary: The night before the trial with Leviathan, Ignis leaves the hotel room and finds himself at the statue of the Tidemother. As he holds the paper wishing bird between his fingers, he contemplates what he desires most for tomorrow's ordeal.Created in conjunction with a render byNightyswolf.





	Wishing Bird

It must have been the seventeenth time he’d passed by that particular grey brick with the corner chipped in the shape of a cat licking its paw, but its reappearance didn’t distract Ignis from his slow, methodical march around the mass of twisted metal for yet another circuit. The summer heat had long ago caused his hair to droop from its typical style, and as his head fell forward and his long bangs fell into his eyes, he irritably brushed them to the side. He hadn’t intended to linger for so long in this place that the sweat had accumulated in the small of his back to make his shirt stick to his skin, but he had important business with the statue this evening that couldn’t be put off.

The artistic representation of the Tidemother’s lesser aspect did little justice to the experience of seeing the glittering majesty of Bismarck with his own eyes, but on a night like this, he could hardly take to the restless waves and present his thoughts in person.

Ignis took comfort in the rhythmic clacking of his heels on the rough-hewn stone. There was something liturgic about the practice, even if his faith in the ritual of worship of powers man could not begin to understand was unsteady at best.

It wasn’t as though he didn’t believe in the divine, in providence, in phenomena which lay beyond the ken of mortal man. Even before he’d helped to fell one of the mighty Six in Noct’s trial, he’d always listened carefully to that wild call of magic circulating in his blood. It whispered secrets to him—carrying on a tenuous thread of instinct the absolute certainty that the Chancellor could not be trusted, while Aranea likely could . . . to a point. Ever since he was a child, he’d heeded that incessant, mysterious song—to his benefit. It had guided him through every trial and tribulation to get him this far, and this evening, it was nearly screaming at him that his greatest challenge lay just ahead.

Ignis halted to gaze longingly at the narwhal’s horn rising up to disappear against the black sky, willing for the higher power to grant him the answers that eluded him this evening. With the cessation of his steps came the absolute silence of a city uncharacteristically tucked and locked away inside their homes, doubtless preparing for the chaos they were about to awaken tomorrow.

What was it about this trial that disquieted him so? They’d endured far worse than this on their journey thus far, surely? Yet there were more players in the game this time around, more people to protect.

He let out a long, slow breath and turned away from the statue, staring sightlessly toward the amber glow of city lights and glimmering canals stretching out to the dark horizon of rocky cliffs, gushing cascades, and eventually, vast ocean. After several long moments, he fished the pen from his hip pack before lifting the bird he had pinched between two fingers by a delicate paper wing. Perhaps this wishing bird would grant them good fortune tomorrow; perhaps it wouldn’t, but there was no harm in attempting, was there now? If he could wish for any single thing regarding tomorrow, what would it be?

The answer that leapt immediately into his head was that everyone he cared for—Princess Lunafreya, Noct, Gladio, Prompto, and even himself and every citizen in Altissia—would make it through this trial unharmed. But of course, he couldn’t wish for something so all-encompassing if he was to have any hope of it being granted. He must distill the very nature of his desires with the goal of their mission and create the purest, simplest form of the combination with a single, modest statement.

Which really left him with no other alternative.

He would give everything he had tomorrow—of that there could be no question. Ignis and Gladio had been raised as children to lay down their lives should the need arise. All three of them had been fully prepared to die in service to the King since the day Insomnia fell and they had engaged their first MTs in battle. For it was Noct who must go on. Only he could wield the full power of the Ring and win back the Crystal. Only he could guide them through whatever darkness lay before them. It was his destiny as the Chosen King.

More than anything in this world, Ignis wished that they would fulfill their duty. To keep Noct safe was to save everyone on the planet, to save everyone Ignis cared for.

He brought the tip of the pen to the bird’s paper wing and began to write.


End file.
